Black Indigenous People Of Color

There are two things in life that I find I am passionate about, Writing and Representation. For years I’ve intertwined them, making sure that what I wrote represented all walks of life, and that as a woman of color, I reached people who could relate to me over people who would buy.

I realized early on as a writer that when you are a BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) there are genres that you are immediately placed in such as diverse authors, urban fiction, African American fiction, urban fantasy, and so on. It's hard to just be placed in the fiction category or general romance when you make it clear that your character or conversation is based on someone of color.

What happens when you’re separated in that way is that your audience is limited. Your work is hard to be seen and not taken as seriously as the work of others.

What I’ve also realized, especially on the non-fiction side of it all, is that it's hard to relate to writers who don’t share the same background and/or experiences as I do, which is where representation comes in.

If I’m looking for a book on building value or confidence in myself the author first needs to be able to relate to how it was broken down in the first place. If I’m looking for a book on parenting it needs to relate to parenting in the way that people of color parent.

I’ve seen it time and time again where suggestions that are the opposite of what BIPOC believes in are pushed as being the norm.

It classifies our beliefs, cultures, and expectations as wrong, and it makes It hard to build foundations of worth.

My membership will focus on building strong foundations of the mind, body, and then eventually within children, meaning, it will talk about ways to build worth, talk about validation, and value for BIPOC specifically. I will do that with podcasts, short stories, animations, and sketches. Using those different outlets help reach more audiences who take things in differently.

To clarify, I am not saying that people who are not of color can’t benefit from this. I am not saying that one way is better than the other. What I am saying is that a non-person of color cannot teach me how I can become a better me when they don’t understand the culture and emotions that I was surrounded with growing up. They lack relatability and understanding to be able to have certain conversations and deliver topics in the way that they are needed.

My goal is to have five different ongoing topics moving within the next two years.

1. Building The Foundations of Self Worth for BIPOC

2. Embracing Who You Are as A Person of Color

3. The Importance of Validation in The Household

4. Embracing Different Parenting Styles For BIPOC

5. Short Stories for Children of Color with Animation, Podcasts, and Sketches

I think that they are all important avenues to touch on in the community and I feel as if at the moment they are misunderstood as one example/teaching relates to everyone. There are lots of different podcasts and blogs on parenting, teaching women their worth, building value in your-self, and definitely animations and blogs for children. What lacks from these that are already here though, is correct representation.

My very first membership would be 30 Days of Building Your Worth for BIPOC and its going to take a deep dive into tearing down the shaky foundation that we have built for ourselves in a world that makes it hard for us to love ourselves; then focus on rebuilding a healthy, strong, foundation of worth. I’m going to highlight how the fact that most of our families were taught, sometimes forced, to raise us a certain way because of where they came from. Whether that be parents that were immigrants, segregated and hated, judged, ridiculed, or discriminated against. Truth of the matter is its important to know what is being torn down so that you know what tools to bring to build it back up.

The difference in my membership would be that I will continue to release books and videos on worth and validation in the BIPOC community. I will continue to make sure my fiction stories focus on characters and backgrounds that represent us as a whole while teaching morals and values through the art of storytelling.